Meta

protesting

One day campaigns and calls for Theresa May to sling it are great at galvanizing support, but if the next election isn’t within the next six months, we run the risk of running out of steam.

Words have power that is clear, but words and actions working in unison will lay the foundation for the kind of change we need to see in our society. Which is why it is unsustainable in the long run to keep up momentum indefinitely.

Why? Because if there are no results, people will grow bored, people drop out, and slowly but surely the momentum slows to a crawl before going in to reverse. We have momentum on our side, at the moment, and no doubt the Tories will be trying to delay until the winds change in their favour.

So what can we do to help sustain activity, to keep our momentum up?

We need to adopt a more community minded, grassroots approach to our campaigning – non traditional forms of campaigning which seek to build up networks within communities, and effect real change within them.

It’s great marching to end homelessness, or against the harsh reality of the cuts, those kind of public displays of peoples anger, and dissatisfaction with the system are integral but you hardly ever see immediate results.

Contrast a march against homelessness with a Labour led drive to support the homeless within their communities, to alleviate the harsh realities of the cuts. When you see that a homeless man is going to get a roof over his head, or isn’t going to go hungry that night, you see a direct return on your political capital.

When you are bringing your politics to life through your work in your community and help stop a family getting evicted, or put food on a single mothers table, so neither her or her child go hungry that night – you see results. Politics in action effecting change on a community level, which feeds back into a national narrative.

Not only this but it is through these networks of resistance that we can sustain momentum, we see small successes, thus keeping people engaged politically. While at the same time engaging with the people that a) need our help the most and b) we need to have a political voice c) providing the apparatus/network for future political work

We need to be radical, we need to be innovative. Combine the social, community and the political, and provide cross community solutions – you have a presence, you are fighting back at the system, and you’re carrying out practical politics.

History is littered with examples of it being successful, and it is a political necessity in this country already. People on the bread line can’t wait to the next election, a disabled person house bound due to cuts, cannot wait to the next election. The people who are suffering most cannot afford to wait, and we shouldn’t leave them behind.

While momentum is on our side, while we have the Tories on the run, it is the perfect opportunity to expand our political activity and get out into our communities supporting those in need, with our actions and deeds.

Dangerous to mix fallacy and fantasy
when digesting the media haphazardly
acting spontaneous is a rarity
in a system of complete conformity
Why do we have austerity
when we can make poverty history
maybe it’s because we have planned poverty
like that has control on the economy
it’s a false dichotomy

you have to ask yourself
why did they lie to me
why do they lie to me

it’s all about the powerful and powerless
the powerless make you feel worthless
Which makes them appear powerful
But we got to remain hopeful
and remember we are the powerful
we number in the billions while
they remain in the hundreds

Together we roar louder than thunder
Together we can make the system go under

As we know it Is election year and Left Unity will have about as much impact on the election as the bedroom tax on the deficit. Regardless of how much of an impact we are going to have however we need to be having a simple and clear message with which the people can relate to us with, UKIP have for example anti-EU and anti-immigration.

We need to have these simple messages with which to engage and strengthen our arguments:

Anti-bankers, anti-corruption

Anti-cuts, pro-hope

Forget the election, it is going to be a big waste of time on our part but we can and should begin campaigning around these issues. Not a week goes by where there is not another scandal within the banking sector and we should really be capitalising on that hate and inequality to begin hammering home our anti-capitalist message.

Left Unity Northampton tried to arrange for Left Unity to have a national day of action calling for bankers to face criminal charges. Our motion never got heard at the NC, and we have heard nothing back from it but this is the kind of thing LU needs to be campaigning on to begin whipping up support among the general population.

Anti-cuts and pro-hope should be linked together, our anti-cuts message should be more positive in its message in that we have to describe and explain in clear and concise terms what a possible society post-austerity can look like and what kind of country we can live in. There is another way, we just have to make it possible.

This way LU can begin building up an identity of one that fights inequality and injustice, while at the same time promoting a new society, a new way of doing things – it can be the vehicle and voice of change. At the moment there is no clear identity, which creates confusion – we need a long term marketing strategy.

One message is clearly positive, the other is a negative campaign we can however unite around both messages, the anti-banker thing is simple and easy for people to relate to while at the same time the positive message can give people hope. We are going to have to fight tooth and nail if we are going to achieve anything.

Left Unity nationally should begin this and it should be rolling out support to all branches in campaigning on these issues, while promoting the message on a wider scale. National call outs, national days of actions, posters, campaign materials and of course creative and inventive actions. We need to regain the initiative, make it fun, make it colourful and make it loud.

Left Unity is new, we are not an established brand, nobody knows what we are and who we stand for and this is what we need to change if we are to achieve our objectives, unify the left and create a social movement with which to change the country and hopefully the world.

Left Unity has a diverse array of people all with varying skill sets and we need to be educating and sharing those skills with branches and activists so we are a campaigning force, and a force for change within our communities. We need to support local branches where needed, promote the creative element of our members and get out on the streets

There are people with a shit load of experience and they need to be utilised so that we can all be effective, I carried a call out for volunteers we had nearly a hundred people wanting to volunteer for us, this was last year but nothing happened (was originally to help with web site/social media but LU employed somebody instead). If we had utilised those volunteers effectively, we would be in great place to campaign come the election and be promoting a better internal culture of cooperation and collectivism.

So what are we waiting for? It is ours for the taking, we need to get busy and get active – show the country and the people what is possible, what we are made of and what we want to achieve. Enough of being on the defensive reacting to this and that, it is time we go on the offensive take the fight to them and build up some momentum.